Flashes of gold and silver

the gold

The race went really well, and I truly gave it EVERYTHING I had, running the first 4 kilometers at an astonishingly fast 5min per km pace, and then I tailed back to a bit more realistic 5:30/km pace until the last 200 meters, when I gave an all out sprint for the finish!

Like last year, I ran with the memory of my three departed BMT friends firmly in my mind – this was for Vera, Rob, and David, who fought so so hard, and who even today inspire me to push and fight even harder on their behalf.

I wasn’t quite sure how well I did until I viewed the official chip times on the website last night… 51:21!! That’s only 7 seconds off my pre-illness Personal Best! I really was only trying to beat last year’s time of 53:38, and I honestly didn’t think I’d come anywhere close to that magical 51 minute point for me!

the gold

The race went really well, and I truly gave it EVERYTHING I had, running the first 4 kilometers at an astonishingly fast 5min per km pace, and then I tailed back to a bit more realistic 5:30/km pace until the last 200 meters, when I gave an all out sprint for the finish!

Like last year, I ran with the memory of my three departed BMT friends firmly in my mind – this was for Vera, Rob, and David, who fought so so hard, and who even today inspire me to push and fight even harder on their behalf.

I wasn’t quite sure how well I did until I viewed the official chip times on the website last night… 51:21!! That’s only 7 seconds off my pre-illness Personal Best! I really was only trying to beat last year’s time of 53:38, and I honestly didn’t think I’d come anywhere close to that magical 51 minute point for me!

This is a HUGE step for me – for the past two years I’ve been trying to get my physical stamina back to the point it was before I became ill, and this race time was a big mental milestone for me.

Like last year, I felt the need to customise my running vest even further with some freezer paper stencils. I put “2 Years!” on the upper back, and “Transplantee” just above my name on the front. My name letters were provided by Anthony Nolan along with the vest, and those rubbery iron-on letters were a bugger to get to stick properly!

I used the same process that I did for the green sweatshirt bolero two years ago, and the only tedious bit is cutting out all the letters with the exacto knife, but once that’s done it goes really quickly. I used the gold Textil Metallics paint after discovering last year that only the Metallics and Textil Plus paints show up on dark fabrics.

If you’d like to donate to the Anthony Nolan Trust (the UK’s bone marrow database charity, the ones who found me my donor!), you can donate here. If you’d like to get on the UK database – request a questionnaire here, then you’ll be sent a vial to spit into a return by post. No blood tests needed!

the silver

It took my brain a bit of effort to work out the best way to assemble this (don’t worry, I’ve kept my notes to share with you!), but it was a pretty quick make once I got the mental picture down.

I’ve only got to coverstitch the hem, but you can see it here inside-out:

I always envisioned the sleeve yokes as being topstitched, but when I went to fish out my silver Gutermann upholstery thread, it was nowhere to be found!! I swear I had some, and I have a vague recollection of someone borrowing it. The following test confirms that I really do need the upholstery weight for this!

The regular Gutermann “Sew All” silver thread is on the left, and the Gutermann upholstery weight beige thread is on the right.

I’ve emailed a few likely borrowing candidates asking the “am I insane or not?” open-ended question, or if that fails, it looks like I’m off to the West End for a replacement spool at the weekend. I contemplated just buying it online, but £5 for a spool of thread (including shipping) just seems excessive somehow.

Oh, and the turquoise motif dress is finished and shall be worn to a wedding on Friday, so we’ll get some photos while I’m all dolled up!

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About Me

Melissa Fehr

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Fehr Trade was founded in 2005 by Melissa Fehr, but she's been sewing in every scrap of spare time since 2001, also taking up running at about the same time. In 2013 both interests collided when Melissa released her first digital sewing patterns for activewear, and she hasn't stopped moving or sewing since! So far she's run five full marathons in her own-sewn gear, and also enjoys cycling and bouldering whenever she can.
All FehrTrade patterns have been road-tested by Melissa and a team of fellow fit sewists. Her studio space is in her floating home in London on the Thames (far, far away from her childhood home in Perry County, Pennsylvania). You can see more of her personal designs on FehrTrade.com.